How to increase online store traffic: 6 effective ways

For the successful operation of an online store, the seller should strive to increase website traffic. In this article, we propose six ways that will help you increase traffic to your online store.

For the successful operation of an online store, the seller should strive to increase website traffic. In this article, we propose six ways that will help you increase traffic to your online store.

SEO promotion

SEO promotion helps to increase the sites position in the search results, thereby increasing the likelihood of the user clicking on the link. According to Sistrix, the first position in the search results receives 28.5% of clicks, and the next two - 15.7% and 11%. All other positions have much less attention. If your site is not at the top of the search results, or at least on the first page, you are missing out greatly.

Two factors are significant for effective SEO promotion: the technical readiness of the site for promotion and the skills of the SEO specialist. The websites of Cartum are developed considering the recommendations of search engines and marketing agencies. Therefor users can start SEO promotion without additional costs for site audit and optimization.

It is hard to do SEO promotion on your own because you need to understand analytics, search engine algorithms and many other things. For quality promotion, it is better to seek assistance from specialists.

Advantages:

•   stable source of traffic
•   gives a long-term effect
•   in the process of promotion, helpful content appears on the site, and usability and loading speed improve.
•   after the main work, the cost of promotion is significantly reduced.

Disadvantages:

•   it’s difficult to implement without the involvement of specialists.
•   serious competition in the issuance
•   delayed results

Сontextual advertising

Contextual advertising is the display of ads to users based on relevant search queries. The store gets a warm audience of customers because users see ads for the products they are looking for. The most common tool for creating such ads is Google Ads. Google allows you to show ads not only in search results but also on partner sites, which increases the reach of the audience.

You can deal with setting up contextual advertising yourself, but the effectiveness of such a promotion may be low. To begin with, it is better to contact advertising agencies that organize the display of ads. Having learned the methods of work of specialists, you can apply them yourself.

Advantages:

• attracts a warm audience

• works on relevant queries

• gives relatively quick results

• the mechanism of operation is clear.

Disadvantages:

• high competition

• constant advertising costs

• there is a risk of draining the budget in case of improper configuration.

Targeted advertising

Targeted advertising is a way to show ads to a specific audience of people. When setting up ads, you can set the characteristics of users who will see the ad: age, gender, interests, location, etc. Thus, the ad will be seen only by your target audience who may be interested in your products. To increase website traffic, you can go beyond the usual audience and test new customer groups by changing the targeting settings.

Targeted advertising opens access to remarketing. Remarketing is showing ads to users who have already visited your site. For example, a customer was looking at vacuum cleaners on your website and saw an ad with them in his Facebook feed. To run remarketing, you should collect information about customers using Facebook Pixel. Based on the collected data, Facebook can also create a similar audience for displaying ads on social networks.

The same specialists are engaged in setting up contextual and targeted advertising. You can set up advertising yourself because no one knows the store's audience better than its owners.

Advantages:

• helps to connect the dots

• allows you to "catch up" with site visitors

• the tool works on Google, Facebook and Instagram.

Disadvantages:

• due to errors in the targeting settings, the ad can be seen by a cold audience.

• the launch of advertising requires careful preparation and a good understanding of the audience.

• It takes time to collect information about the audience.

Social Networks

Often sellers simultaneously develop a website and an online store page on social networks. Thanks to many different promotion mechanisms, the store can gather a large audience on its page on social networks. The bottom line is that sellers publish information about their assortment and promote it, and customers go to the site for purchases.

The most popular social networks for creating a store are Instagram and Facebook. With these platforms, you can promote your store using conventional advertising and non-standard tools, such as prize giveaways. You do not need to hire someone to maintain a page on social networks - you can learn how to do it on your own, using information from open sources.

Advantages:

• giving access to a large audience of people

• no need to involve third-party specialists

• popularizes the online store

Disadvantages:

• development can take many months.

• maintenance of the page requires a lot of time.

• additional content is required

YouTube

YouTube is the world's leading video hosting site. The format of video content is quite suitable for an online store. The seller can make a video review of the product and instructions, tell industry news or talk about the business. People who do not know about the online store will discover the videos and visit the site to learn more about it.

For filming, you will need high-quality equipment and a film crew. If you master shooting video and editing, you can accomplish the video creation yourself. You will need to spend money on the right equipment. Otherwise, the videos will be low quality. No matter how exciting the content is, people will not view videos that are of poor quality and sound.

Advantages:

• stimulates the creation of interesting content

• allows you to reach new customer audiences

• develops the store brand

Disadvantages:

• It does not give a quick effect.

• It takes a long time to create commercials.

• There are equipment costs.

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a way to attract new customers through recommendations from existing customers. To use referral marketing, an online store needs to stimulate word of mouth. The store should launch a loyalty program that allows customers to receive a reward for attracting customers. The award will encourage customers to have a more active discussion of the store among their friends, increasing site traffic.

For referral marketing to work, the store must provide quality customer service. People will not recommend an unsatisfactory store to their friends, not to spoil their reputation. It is also essential to think about a decent reward for inviting customers. You can give a bonus not only to an existing customer, but also to a new one to immediately attract and keep their attention.

Advantages:

• does not require additional costs

• works in a passive format

• it's quick to implement

• individual recommendations work better than conventional advertising.

Disadvantages:

• It will not provide a massive influx of customers.

• you will need to have an audience of loyal customers to launch it.

Conclusion

Every seller should remember that it is not enough to create an online store for sales - you need to constantly look for new customers. Use the recommended ways to increase website traffic. Combine several tools at once for the best effect!